


In Your Shoes

by PanicFOB



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Language, extreme fluffiness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 07:21:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21472189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PanicFOB/pseuds/PanicFOB
Summary: A letter meant for Steve to deliver to a pre-war Bucky when he goes on his mission to return the stones.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Reader
Comments: 1
Kudos: 69





	In Your Shoes

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of AU in the sense that the Avengers made up right after CW and continued to work as a team, but IF and EG still happened.  
Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think in the comments :)

Bucky,

Believe me when I say that this is the strangest letter I’ve ever written. Is it necessary? Probably not, but I’m a hopeless romantic these days, and this is just something I wanted to do to make sure there’s more love in the world, even if it isn’t our world.

The 40s. God, it was a different time then. You’re still cleaning up Steve’s messes and lecturing him about lying on his enlistment forms. It seems like a dreary time, but you hardly know the half of it just yet. Cherish your days with that scrawny bastard. The war awaits.

Dance with every beautiful dame that will have you. Enjoy all the evenings sipping milkshakes at the diner. Let Steve draw you when he asks. Don’t throw such a fuss about it because you’ll appreciate those pencil sketches when everything else around you has suddenly changed.

We do things a little differently in the 21st century. Yes, I’m writing to you from the next century. I’m sure you’re rather confused. I’m reaching out because I believe I can offer some insightful notes that will help your life be a tiny bit happier than mine was.

It will take a long time. A very very long time. But in a future so starkly contrast to your simple Brooklyn streets, a woman will come into your life. You’ll know her when you see her. She’ll look at you in a way that nobody else ever has, a way that seems to rattle your bones and expose your soul.

She will be your light. Your awakening. Your sleepy smiles in the early mornings before an emergency mission. She’ll be the soldier at your back for years to come. Make sure you love her with every fiber of your being because she deserves it.

You’ll be afraid for so long. You won’t tell her how you feel until the moment has almost run out. And then, both of you will be dust for years, unable to flourish and grow in your barely admitted love. So, tell her sooner. Tell her the moment you feel it, long before half the world is trying to disappear.

Don’t let her soft hands and knowing eyes frighten you. Don’t let her smirking lips convince you to hold it all in. When you’re side-by-side, firing bullet after bullet at faceless enemies, shout it over the sounds of the commotion. When you’re on the couch together at the compound, watching the Terminator movies and she’s nearly asleep, whisper it to her before those lovely eyes flutter close. Don’t worry about who else might be around to hear. Don’t be ashamed of it.

Whatever you’ll build with her will be the single most perfect thing you’ve ever done in your life. She will be your everything, so grab onto it faster and cradle it with the utmost care.

You can even show her this letter if it helps. But the most important thing to know is that Bucky Barnes and Y/F/N Y/L/N belong together in every iteration of the multiverse. Do your duty to not let the stunning Y/N in your world feel unappreciated, unloved.

Also, she really loves to be kissed on her left temple. Make sure to do that any chance you get.

A guy who’s very much been in your shoes,

Bucky

“What’s this?” she said with a teasing tone as she snatched the paper out of Bucky’s metal hand.

“Uh, it’s nothing, doll. Don’t read that.”

But her eyes were already scanning, flicking from left to right so quickly that Bucky could barely keep up. “Make sure you love her with every fiber of your being because she deserves it…” Y/N mumbled. “Bucky, what is this?”

He let out a sigh, but his reddened cheeks were giving away his embarrassment. “Well, you might as well read the rest now.”

Her eyes returned to the paper, and he studied her minuscule reactions. The tiniest twitch of her cheek muscle when she read something that made her want to smile. The lightning-fast flick of her eyes up to him when she undoubtedly read a line that was ridiculously sappy.

Finally, she handed the letter back to him. “I still don’t understand, love.” She wove her arms around the back of his neck.

“I just thought… well… I was stupid for taking so long to tell you how I feel. I mean, we barely had one month together before the snap happened. Now, Steve’s talking about going back, and if there’s a Bucky in another dimension that might get to spend a little more time being your guy and knowing what it feels like to be loved by you, then I’ll do my best to help him. So, I’m gonna ask Steve to take this letter to back before the war.”

She pulled her bottom lip in-between her teeth, and Bucky watched worriedly as her eyes began to water.

“Y/N, what did I do? Why are you crying?”

She laughed, but it wasn’t her normal one, more watery from her tearful state. “You’re just so damn you all the time. My heart can’t take it when you look like you’ve killed a hundred aliens before breakfast yet you say the most heart-swelling, sickeningly sweet things to me. You’re a walking contradiction. You’re pathetically romantic. And you’re also really fucking silly, but I love you anyway.”

Bucky imagined each time that he kissed her, as he was doing now, every version of himself was kissing every version of this wonderful woman just as tenderly. Their love leaped across worlds, danced through dimensions.

“You’re not giving that to Steve,” she said when their craving lips had finally grown satisfied and floated apart.

“Why not? You don’t want to be with me in another dimension?”

She did that little head tilt to let Bucky know he was being ridiculous. “Of course I do. But your advice here is gonna end up causing some other version of me to be creeped out by some other version of you if he goes confessing his love too early.”

“But I waited far too long in this world.”

“You waited until the moment when you were so full of love for me that you literally couldn’t contain it any longer. It was that buildup, the way it was so clearly consuming you that made me love you all the more.”

She kissed him again, this time a simple peck.

“Bucky, we have all the time in the world now. This world. There’s no need to go concerning yourself with all the others.”

And it dawned on him that she was right. She always was. He tore the letter into a few pieces and tossed them in the trash.

Then, he wrapped his hands low around her waist and pulled her to him snugly. “All the time in the world, you say? I can think of somethin’ to kill a few hours.”

“Only a few?” she wondered with a giggle. He gave her neck a seductive nibble in retaliation.


End file.
